Kolkata: PV Sindhu continued her fine run as she raced her way into the semi-finals of the Korean Super Series Open after defeating Minatsu Mitani 21-19, 16-21, 21-10 in the quarter-finals of the women’s singles category on Friday. The Rio and Glasgow World Championship silver medalist will next face the sixth seeded Chinese He Bingjiao at the UK Handball stadium.
Having come to the match with a 1-1 head to head record with the Japanese, Sindhu took an early lead of 5-1, but Mitani bounced back managing to take 11-9 lead at the break. However, she had to give in to an rampaging attack from Sindhu, who won the first set 21-19.
In the second Set, it was Mitani who started the game on the front foot, taking a 4-8 lead. Sindhu, not the one to hold back won a flurry of points in the run to lead at 12-9 at one point. But the Japanese made another comeback capturing the second game 16-21 to stand at 1-1 after two Sets.
In the final and decider set, the world number four put up another brilliant performance, not giving any chance to Mitani after taking a 9-2 lead. Though Mitani took six continuous points to decrease the deficit, Sindhu maintained her composure to go past her opponent.
There also remains a high chance that Sindhu may face Nozomi Okuhara (her opponent in the World Badminton Championships final), if both of them manage to win their semi-finals. The last time the both of them clashed, Okuhara came out as the winner beating Sindhu 21-19, 20-22, 22-20 to win the gold medal.
Meanwhile in the men’s category Indian shuttler Sameer Verma was knocked out after losing the battle against world number one Son Wan-Ho of Korea 20-22, 21-10, 21-13 in the quarter-finals.
Sameer had started the match brightly as he won the first set, but Son came back to bring up a hard-earned win over the Indian.